07.14.07

Safe Food Handling Practices - 10 Simple Tips for Cooking At Home

Posted in Cooking Tips & Tricks at 4:42 pm by henri

Many times you and family do not feel well, because you’ve eaten food that was handled or prepared in an unsafe manner. This can be avoided when preparing food at home, by keeping the following in mind during food preparation.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, the single most important thing you can do to prevent getting sick is "WASH YOUR HANDS." Clean hands, as well as clean cooking utensils and surfaces are your first defense against food-borne illness. Like washing your hands, most of the things you can do to help prevent a food-borne illness are really easy.

Here are 10 simple food safety tips, that together spell F-O-O-D S-A-F-E-T-Y.

Fight bacteria by washing your hands often. Wash for about 20 seconds (sing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" twice) with hot, soapy water BEFORE fixing or eating foods and AFTER using the bathroom, changing diapers, handling pets, gardening, coughing or blowing your nose.

Only thaw perishable food in the refrigerator or the microwave. Never defrost food on the kitchen counter. Cook food immediately after thawing in a microwave.

Order perishable hot takeout foods so they’re delivered shortly before serving. Whether takeout or prepared at home, avoid letting foods such as meat, poultry, seafood, dairy products, eggs, cut and/or peeled fruits and vegetables sit at room temperature longer than two hours.

Divide leftovers into small, shallow containers for rapid cooling in the refrigerator.

Set your refrigerator to run at 40 F and your freezer at 0 F to help stop harmful bacteria from growing. Keep an appliance thermometer in your refrigerator/freezer to monitor temperatures.

Avoid cross-contamination. Wash cutting boards, knives and other utensils in the dishwasher or with hot soapy water and rinse with hot water after they come in contact with raw meat, poultry and seafood, and before using them for another item. Avoid placing cooked food on a plate that held these raw foods. Multiple, colored cutting boards can help keep food types separate, to avoid cross contamination.

Fruits and vegetables should be thoroughly cleaned before eating. Wash fruits and vegetables thoroughly with running tap water just before eating. There are also special fruit and vegetable washes that can be purchased at health and grocery stores. Wash fruits and vegetables that you peel or cut, such as melons, oranges or cucumbers. Bacteria adhere to the surface of these and can be transferred to the part you eat when it is cut or peeled.

Eat foods that you know are safe. Most of the bacteria that commonly cause food-borne illness can’t be seen, smelled or tasted. When in doubt, toss it out!

Take the temperature of perishable foods such as meat, poultry and seafood to assure harmful bacteria are destroyed. Cook hamburger and other ground meats (veal, lamb, and pork) to an internal temperature of 160 F and ground poultry to 165 F. Beef, veal and lamb steaks and roasts may be cooked to 145 F for medium rare and to 160 F for medium. Whole poultry should be cooked to 180 F as measured in the thigh; breast meat to 170 F. All cuts of pork should reach 160 F. Thoroughly cook fish until it is opaque and flakes with a fork.

Yolks and whites of eggs should be cooked until firm to avoid possible food-borne illness from salmonella. Store fresh eggs in their original carton and use within three weeks for best quality. Use hard-cooked eggs within one week — do NOT return them to the egg carton for storage. Refrigerate them in a clean container.

Due to food quality and special preparation methods in restaurants and homes, some of these rules may not be adhered. Your favorite Caesar salad dressing may contain raw egg yolks, and a restaurant chef may recommend your pork chop be cooked to only 145 degrees. Usually your food server or menu will warn you about such items, so you can make an informed decision regarding your food choices. These items will probably not hurt you, however children are more susceptible to illness because they do not yet have the enzymes to fight some bacteria, thus your choices for them should be more cautious. If you are concerned about a certain food or food preparation method, avoid those items.

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07.13.07

Cooking tips for healthier Eating

Posted in Cooking Tips & Tricks at 4:52 pm by henri

Most people have heard that the new government guidelines recommend that all Americans eat at least five servings of fruits and vegetables every day. While that may seem like a lot, it is actually easier than you think to consume all the fruits and vegetables you need each and every day.

Learning to cook with the many fruits and vegetables available at the local grocery store is an essential skill, and it is very important for those who hope to reach the five a day guideline set down by the USDA. Just about everyone uses a microwave these days, and microwave ovens can make cooking with vegetables and fruits easy and fun.

Using a microwave pressure cooker or microwave proof bowl is a great way to quickly steam veggies. Cooking vegetables this way allows them to retain their all important nutrients. The microwave is also a great way to cook baked potatoes, and micro waved baked potatoes retain more of their natural moisture, therefore needing less of that fat laden butter and sour cream.

Combining free steamed broccoli with that great baked potato gets you almost halfway to your goal of five servings of vegetables and fruits per day. The grill is another great way to meet your goal of five servings of fruits and vegetables every day.

Why not use green peppers, red peppers and pineapple chunks to create delicious and colorful vegetable kebobs? Whether served with lean cuts of beef or by themselves, vegetable kabobs are a great treat for the whole family. Vegetables are best grilled over medium hot coals.

Those with a blender handy can make some wonderful smoothies with the great fresh fruit from the grocery store. Delicious smoothies can be made using peaches, nectarines, crushed ice and fruit juice. For a quick fruit salad, simply open a can of mandarin oranges, add a banana, an apple, and strawberries, blueberries or raisins.

The total preparation time for this great fruit salad is all of five minutes. Fruit skewers are even easier to make than grilled vegetable skewers. Fruit skewers can easily be made by stacking strawberries, melon slices, grapes and chunks of pineapples.

A great dip can be made using nonfat plain or vanilla yogurt. Another great way to meet your five a day fruit and vegetable goal is by making your own healthy salsa. There are some great recipes for salsa on the internet, using such great and healthy ingredients as tomatoes, avocados, red onions, mangoes, cilantro and lime.

For those looking for a fun way to enjoy fruits and vegetables, why not make some popsicles? Popsicles are not just for kids anymore, and pouring fruit or vegetable juice into a popsicle mold is a great way to make a delicious and nutritious snack. In addition, these healthy popsicles are a great way to get the kids interested in eating healthy at an early age.

Since eating habits picked up in childhood can last a lifetime, that is very important. In addition to these great fruit and vegetable serving suggestions, there are other ways to create memorable meals using your five a day criteria. For instance, adding broccoli florets, slices of carrots, cucumber slices, green peppers and red peppers is a great way to add crunch and zest to a bland pasta salad. A plain old green salad can be perked up by including colorful fruits and vegetables like carrots, spinach leaves, tangerine slices, nectarines, grapes, slices of apples, pineapples and raisins. Not only to these additions add beauty and drama to any salad, but they get you closer to your goal of five servings of fruits and vegetables a day.

For a simple, inexpensive and nutritious salad dressing, try such novel approaches as fruit juices, flavored vinegars and home grown herbs. Creating great tasting salads is very important for healthy eating, and avoiding high fat salad dressings is an important consideration for anyone concerned about their health. Another great way to ensure you eat plenty of vegetables and fruits is to add those vegetables and fruits to the foods you already eat. That can be as simple as adding green peppers and red peppers to your pizza, adding pineapple chunks to your shish kebobs, adding bananas to your cereal or adding blueberries to your daily serving of yogurt.